Red Velvet Cupcakes Filled With Cream Cheese Frosting

                            

Mmm... what says Happy Valentine's Day better than red velvet cake? Besides chocolate, flowers and jewelry...nothing. And what says red velvet cake better than cream cheese frosting? Absolutely nothing. I love cream cheese frosting. On red velvet cake. On carrot cake. Out of the bowl. I love it. I also love red velvet cake because it is essentially chocolate cake, but dyed red and is there really anything better in the universe than chocolate cake? I think not. 

I made these cupcakes for the guys (and the 3 ladies) at my husbands job. I'm pretty sure they loved them since all 30 of them were gone within an hour. I know, I know... I am awesome. 

Anyways, here is the recipe, and it's easier than pie (since pie isnt that easy) and it's delicious, and with cream cheese frosting it is heaven. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cake by Kimba

Ingredients for cupcakes

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 bottle (1 oz) red food coloring
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions for making cupcakes

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. 
3. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. 
4. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. 
5. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. 
6. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. 
7. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.
8. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely.

Ingredients for frosting

•  8oz package of cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 16oz confection sugar

Directions for frosting

1.  Beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract in a large bowl until light and fluffy. 
2. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Assembling Cupcakes

1. Make an indentation in the center of each cupcake using the handle of a wooden spoon or a straw, making sure not to break through bottom of cupcake. 
2. Spoon frosting into a cake decorating bag (or resealable plastic bag with a small piece off one of the bottom corners of bag cut off). 
3. Pipe about 1 teaspoon frosting into each cupcake. 
4. Decorate the tops of the cupcakes with remaining frosting. 

**Tips**

I used a smaller star tip to fill the cupcakes, and then a large one to decorate the tops. The cupcake recipe makes about 30 cupcakes, where as the frosting wasn't nearly enough. I ended up making 3 batches of the frosting recipe to fill all 30 cupcakes and then frost them. I had some leftover too so I would recommend using 2.5 batches of frosting.